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BY 



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REY. JOHN DURWflRD. 




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1890. 



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Copyright, 18'jo, 

BY 

Key. JOHN T. DURWARD. 



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To the ]VIernbers of the First Aroerieor) 
Pilgrirnage to Palestir)e. 



DID not ^isl^ tl^e anniversary of tl^e Holy WeeK ^e 
spent toget]:\er in tt|e Holy City to pass ^ittioiit at 
least a srqall t|arvest of fruit, as an incentive, aliKe, 
and an earnest. Tt|e t^istory of oxir Pilgrirnage Y\as yet 
to be written. Trtese sonnets, cornposed in tl|e locali- 
ties, are a fe^ of tt^e tt\OL(gl)ts tl:)ose spots awakened, 
crystallized into verse. Tt|ey are l:\ere laid at your 

feet by 

THE AUTHOR, 

Baraboo, Wis., Feb. 22, 1890. 



mTRObUCTORY. 



^»«. 

^/H' 



I. Not only to the Jew, but to every thinking man, Jeru- 
salem must ever be the holiest of cities. It is the type alike of 
each human soul; of the Church on earth; of the mansion of 
Heaven. 

Everyone can read the history of his own heart and mind 
between the lines of Jerusalem's history. The favors of God 
that have dropped noiselessl}^ on us, "like the dew on Hermon," 
or rushed forcefully like "the torrent in the South ;" the dis- 
regard, too often, of these graces; the hardening of the heart 
against the goodness; the rejection of the mercy; the calling 
down of the vengeance ; the long estrangement from virtue 
and God ; but His still longer arm that touched us and held 
us; and His endless love that ultimately won us back; the 
walls of doctrine that He builded round us; the cisterns of 
grace, plentiful as water, that He digged for us; the continued 
falling off from Him, alas! and the scourged return — how 
well are all these recorded in the story of Jerusalem ! 

And it represents the Church. Seated on its hill, so that it 
cannot be liidden, a light alike, and a target for all ; encircled 
by its strong walls and its gates where justice lives, and which 



6 

Hell's gates cannot destroy ; to which the tribes ascend ; where 
the Urim and the Tliummim gleam ; where the candlestick 
dispells the darkness, and where its name secures peace. 

Builded of stones, many and curious, varied from the rough 
limestone of the wildernesses' hills, to the smooth alabaster, and 
the sculptured porphyry, — as the Church ascends, stone by 
stone, of unlettered peasant, as well as of scholar and saint. 

But Jerusalem is also our figure of Heaven. ''Jerusalem 

my happy home," is on ever}^ tongue ; and priest lips intone, at 

least once in a year, 

Coelestis urbs Jerusalem 
Beata pacis visio. 

And how wondrously St. John in the Apocalypse, not only 
himself sees, but shows to us the vision of that New City, with 
its wall, great and high, with its three gates to every wind, with 
its twelve foundations, of jasper and sapphire, of chalcedony 
and of emerald, of sardonyx and sard, of chrysolite and of 
beryl, of topaz, and chrysoprase, of jacinth and amethyst. 
Its twelve gates, too, each of one several pearl, and the city of 
pure gold. 

The pilgrimage to Palestine, thus, more than any other, run- 
ning parallel to our life of pilgrimage, appeals to every heart. 
It includes also all others, as Our Lord's life includes that of 
all the saints. He is more a prophet than Isaias, more an 
apostle than Peter, more a martyr than James, more a virgin 
than Mary, more a confessor than Meinrad. So the pilgrimage 



to the Holy Land surpasses all — Compostello, Rome, Loretto, 
Einsiecleln. 

IL There are those who would decry pilgrimages, shelter- 
ing themselves behind Thomas a Kempis, who, however, says 
nothing to the point. But the Church in all ages has attached 
great indulgences to them, and to this first American pilgrim- 
age to Palestine Pope Leo XIIL, gloriously reigning, granted 
absolute dispensation from all fast and abstinence, although the 
time was Lent. 

And let us consider : Religion is based on veneration ; 
and one of the dreariest manifestations of the decay of faith 
in our land and age is the lack of veneration. It is Goethe, I 
think, who insists on "tiiree reverences," as essential to the 
good man ; reverence, namely, for what is above us, for what is 
around us, and for what is below us. And it is not the lack 
merely of veneration for what is unknown, being high, but the 
absence of reverence for anything. We see it in the young 
who have no high respect for parents or for age ; we see it in 
the grown, who despise the church ; it finds its humorous but 
degrading expression in the Mark Twains, the Bill Nyes and 
the Chas. Lederers. Reading these we almost envy the savage 
who would not believe that tliere were people who did not say, 
" Oh ! " to anything, as he did before his gods. 

But pilgrimage is veneration in which the body joins. It 
is not indeed the wisdom of the proverb, " the rolling stone 
gathers no moss." But are these sayings of Ben. Franklin not 



the very essence of world lin ess, that says : " Soul, thou hast 
many good things, enjoy them," and are not the Arabs in some 
way higher than we who surround ourselves with the comforts 
of life and dare not leave them? 

It is a cheering sign, then, that the spirit of pilgrimage is 
again awaking, for, as cold at the extremities denotes alow state 
of animal vitality, so disregard of what we may call the non- 
essentials of religion shows an impoverished spiritual life. 

And fervor of spirit breathed in the band of nearly a hun- 
dred persons who assembled in St. Patrick's Cathedral, New 
York, on the morning of Feb. 20, 18S9, to pray the Itlnerarium 
and to receive the blessing of Archbishop Corrigan. The list of 
the Pilgrims is as follows : 

FIRST SECTION. 

Rev. Anthony Arnold, Brooklyn, N. Y.; Rev. Wendelin 
Guhl, Brooklyn, N. Y.; Rev. Adam F. Tonner, New York City; 
Rev. James Pfeiffer, Enochsburg, Ind.; Rev. P. M. Kennedy; 
Birmingliam, Conn.; Rev. John Russell, New Plaven, Conn.; 
Rev. A. G. Spierings, Keyport, N. J.; Rev. A. Hurly, Rose- 
mount, Minn.; Rev. J. J. Gabriel, St. Leon, Ind ; Mr. Jacob 
Shandorf, Manlius Station, N. Y.; Mr. Patrick Lilly, New York 
City ; Mrs. Patrick Lilly, New York City ; Mr. John B. Manning, 
New York City; Mr. John Maiming, New York City; Master 
Robert Collier, New York City; Mr. J. T. Michau, New York 
City; Mrs. J. T. Michau, New York City; Mr. Michael AV. Cos- 



tello, Boston, Mass.; Mr. John P. Brady, Baltimore, Md.; Mr. 
T. H. Bowes, Columbus, Ohio ; Mr. Jos. Donahue, Columbus, 
Miss.; Miss Mary McFarland, Boston, Mass.; Miss Bridget Kil- 
kenny, Boston, Mass.; Miss Annie Weaver, Brooklyn, N. Y.; 
Miss E. A. Ford, New York City ; Miss Fannie Herle, Boston, 
Mass.; Miss Mary Connelly, Boston, Mass.; Miss Julia Harring- 
ton, Charlestown, Mass.; Miss Annie Doherty, Charlestown, 
Mass.; Miss A. E. F. Brewer, Philadelphia, Pa.; Miss F. G. 
Snyder, Philadelphia, Pa.; Miss E. McCarthy, Denver, Col; 
Miss Helen Dannemiller, Canton, Ohio; Miss Mary F. Deveny, 

Boston, Mass. 

SECOND SECTION. 

Rev. F. Bender, Pueblo, Col.; Pvev. J. T. Durward, Baraboo, 
Wis.; Rev. J. J. Dunn, Meadville, Pa.; Rev. J. Buckley, Beaver 
Dam', Wis.; Mr. Jas. Lee, Plymouth, Pa.; Mr. Theodore Mottu, 
Baltimore, Md.; Mr. Jas. C. Connor, Chicago, 111.; Mr. Frank 
Headen, Chicago, 111.; ISIr. Daniel McCann, Chicago, 111.; Mr. 
Wm. P. Ginther, Akron, Ohio; Mr. Wm. Byrne, Jacksonville, 
Fla.; Mrs. Wm. Byrne, Jacksonville, Fla.; Mrs. Jane Nolan, 
Jacksonville, Fla.; Miss Alice Byrne, Jacksonville, Fla.; Miss 
Mary Jane Byrne, Jacksonville, Fla.; Miss S. L. Burke, Phila- 
delphia, Pa. 

THIRD SECTION. 

Rt. Rev. W. M. Wigger, D.D., Bishop of Newark, N. J.; 
Rt. Rev. Joseph Rademacher, Bishop of Nashville, Tenn.; Rt. 



10 

Rev. Monsignor Seton, Jersey City, N. J.; Very Rev. Cbas. A. 
Vissani, New York City ; Very Rev. John F. Fierens, Portland, 
Oregon; Rev. M. J. Pbelan, New York City; Rev. Jno. Walsh, 
Troy, N. Y.; Rev. J. M. Nardiello, Bloomfield, N. J.; Rev. Fred- 
erick Kivelitz, Freehold, N. J.; Rev. L. C. Carroll, Jersey City, 
N. J.; Rev. W. P. Cantwel], Metuchen, N. J.; Rev. J. C. Dunn, 
Newark, N. J.; Rev. J. A. O'Grady, New Brunswick, N. J.; Rev. 
M. E. Kane, Red Bank, N. J.; Rev. M. Carroll, Alleghany City, 
Pa.; Rev. Geo. Meyer, Fryburg, Pa.; Rev. Christopher Hughes, 
Fall River, Mass.; Rev. P. J. Harkins, Holyoke, Mass.; Rev. J. 
J. Keogh, Milwaukee, Wis.; Rev. Stephen Trant, Racine, Wis.; 
Rev. H. Robinson, Leadville, Col.; Rev. H. J. Rousseau, Ispbem- 
ing, Mich.; Rev. F. J. Blanc, Pass Christian, Miss.; Rev. Jno. 
Harty, Providence, R. I.; Rev. Franesco Di Giovanni, Rome, 
Italy ; Rev. Jno. Koeberle, Brooklyn, N. Y.; Mr. Jas. T. Quinn, 
Albany, N. Y.; Mr. James C. Farrell, Albany, N. Y.; Mr. A. 
Neupert, Bufflilo, N. Y.; Mr. Cbas. Bork, Buffalo, N. Y.; Mr. 
Jno. Ford, New York City; Mr. J. Herbert Ledwith, New York 
City; Mr. Alois Muller, New York City; Mr. Joseph F. Ismay, 
New York City; Mr. Wm. Noonan, Elizabethport, N. J.; Mrs. 
Wm. Noonan, Elizabethport, N. J ; Mr. C. P. Harkins, Newton, 
Mass.; Mr. Patrick Coyle, Waterbury, Conn.; Mr. Joseph Lefebre, 
St. Paul, Minn.; Mr. Louis Dion, St. Paul, Minn.; Mr. Jno. F. 
Hoebing, Wall Lake, Iowa ; Dr. Wm. E. Carroll, Jersey City, N. 
J.; Miss Elizabeth C. McCartin, Jersey City, N. J.; Miss Isabel 
T. McCartin, Jersey City, N. J.; Miss Katie Daly, Jersey City, 



11 

N. J.; Miss C. Quinn, Albany, N. Y.; Miss Carrie Cantwell, Fall 
River, Mass.; Miss Catherine Harkins, Holyoke, Mass.; Miss 
Grace M. Harkins, Holyoke, Mass.; Miss Annie Carroll, Alle- 
ghany City, Pa.; Miss Josephine I. McCall, New York City ; 
Mrs. Marie F. Farnham, New York City. 

Their banner told their aim. On one side: "First American 
Pilgrimage to Palestine ;" and on the reverse : '' His Sepulchre 
shall be Glorious." 

It does not require the cockle shell and staff and the san- 
daled foot to make the pilgrim ; it is the intention. Our civili- 
zation has altered the mode of traveling, but not necessarily 
killed the spirit of the traveler. And the Pilgrimage was a 
religious act. These men and women were not pleasure-seek- 
ers or sight-seers, although they took much pleasure by the 
way, and saw much. But their going was from a motive of 
faith and veneration. There was a millionaire in their num- 
ber, but the majority were poor — priests, who for years had 
denied themselves many luxuries, yes, servants, who spent the 
hoardings of their lifetime to stand in these holy places. 

HI. There is a disappointment inevitable in all historical 
places. From our infancy we have pictured them to ourselves, 
not as they are, but as they were when the events happened that 
made them loved. So here in Holy Land our heart is not 
satisfied. Fain would we see the ox and the ass in the gloom 
of the hillside stable; fain would we find the rude tools scat- 
tered around Joseph's workshop, and, perhaps, an unfinished 



12 

plow-beam which the Child Jesus had shaped : it would answer 
our expectations better to find Calvary a lone hill, outside the 
city walls, with the three crosses still standing out against a 
grey sky — but all this is impossible ; and in our world of change, 
in the catastrophies that have swept over this land, the only 
practical means to preserve these places to us at all is just what 
has been done — build churches over them. 

But although reason is satisfied, devotion is sadly lost in the 
crowded mart, up to the very doors of the sanctuary, as when, 
in wrath, the Lord scourged the buyers and sellers; lost in the 
bustle of the thronged temple, yes, even in the public worship 
that elsewhere would have edified. 

It adds, however, a fresh grandeur to the architecture of 
God, a new charm to the mountains of Judea and to the blue 
waters of Galilee, to feel that these at least are unchanged ; that 
the same bending hills His eyes rested on, and the same azure 
waters His feet pressed. 

Again in these holy lands we are embarrassed by the riches. 
It is not only that we see too many places — as in a gallery we 
see too many pictures — but besides this, every place has a mul- 
titude of phases. Here near Bethlehem was, perhaps, the 
terrestrial Paradise. Our thoughts fly back to the begininng 
of things, and this Bethleliemite, in his jacket of sheep-skin, 
with the wool outside, and his spade in his hand, is Adam 
going to his sweaty labor, in garments God-made. 

.But near here Abraham dwelled, and yonder old man with 



13 

flowing beard, followed by a boy, may be the Patriarch journey- 
ing northward to the mountain which God will show him, on 
which to offer his son — hardest obedience ever asked of man. 

But again, this is the City of David, and we picture to our- 
selves the boy with his sling and stones, or the King with his 
harp, or the Penitent writing his psalms. And still again, here 
was the Nativity that gave us a new year to date from ; here 
the song of angels, the sole one heard by mortals ; here the 
homage of the shepherds ; here the gold, the incense and the 
myrrh ; here the Babe of the straw, that makes Christmas still 
the feast of children. 

We could go on endlessly connecting event upon event with 
each locality ; but this is enough to show what I mean. In 
every place many different histories come before one, and the 
imaginative man is almost dazzled. 

Yet without the power of imagination and of memory to 
bring up the past, without a knowledge of history, what profit 
to travel in this land, or, indeed, anywhere? 

IV. There are minds which are always disturbing others' 
devotion and their own, if they have any left, by calling in 
doubt the authenticity of Holy Sites. "What superstition," 
they will exclaim, ''to kneel and kiss these spots, when we have 
no certainty that they are the very localities!" 

Does not this spirit itself betray superstition? Why do 
they strain so after the exact spot? Is it then the ground 
they w^ould worship? In the heart of the true believer it is 



14 

Jesus who is venerated, not the earth, His footstool, and whether 
the spot on which He stood at a given moment of His life be 
here or a few rods distant is not of much concern. It is much 
more a matter of devotion than of topography. These are the 
sites as nearly as can be ascertained of the mysteries that have 
linked earth with Heaven, and here I pour forth my soul in 
thankfulness. 

Joyfully do I read in Thomson's excellent work. The Land 
and the Book : 

" Is it not possible that we Protestants carry our dislike for 
what is doubtful, or, at best, traditional, farther than is either 
necessary or profitable ? Do not the purest and best feelings of 
our nature prompt us to preserve and protect from desecration 
such sites as that of the Holy Sepulchre ? What, in fact, is it 
which gives such supreme gratification to our pilgrimage to 
Jerusalem? Is it not because we find the names of Olivet, 
Bethany, Gethsemane, Calvary, Zion, and the like clinging to 
those sacred sites and scenes, with invincible tenacity, through 
wars and destructions absolutely without parallel and repeated 
down long centuries of most dismal darkness and confusion 
worse confounded ? And because in the death struggle to hold 
fast those sacred landmarks ignorant men have perverted them 
to selfish purposes or pushed becoming reverence and love over 
into sinful superstition, are we, therefore, to scout the whole 
thing and scowl upon those cherished sites and upon those who 
have cherished them ? 



15 



"I more than admit that nothing can justify idolatry ; but is 
even a little too much reverence in such a case as odious to Him 
in whose honor it is manifested, as cold neglect or proud 

contempt?" 

But have we no proofs that will satisfy an inquiring mind 
that these sites are authentic? We have for most of them the 
best of proof. I will not weary the reader with archeology, 
but ask him to consider two points: 1. Under Constantine 
Christianity triumphed over the Roman Empire, then Empire of 
the East also. Helen, the mother of Constantine, had a nation's 
resources at her command, and she was determined to locate 
the true spots of the incidents of Our Saviour's life ; she had all 
the help she needed of excavators ; she had the wisest archeo- 
logists in her employ ; satisfied that she had found these sites, 
she erected churches over them. Not to mention the miracles 
that pious legend sends to her aid, was less than three hun- 
dred years very far to go back and identify spots or articles? 
In the face of the mummies of Egypt's kings, who reigned 
4,000 years ago, proved to the satisfaction of the learned to be 
authentic, three hundred years is as nothing. 

And the East changes little ; a conservative nation has 
ever peopled it, and in a land without much of a literature, tra- 
dition holds a much more important position than with us, in 
these days of printing-presses. There Patriarch is Historian, 
and History is tale handed from father to son. Three long 
lives would bridge the, to some, formidable gulf. 2. The 



16 

other consideration is this, and it is the one consolation that 
mitigates the pain of the Babel of confusion at these holy 
shrines — the principal religions of the world are there contend- 
ing for the possession of these spots. 

Do men quarrel over the possession of a counterfeit note ? 
No! only for the genuine. If these arguments fail to convince 
the sceptic, and he still insist that an artful clergy, has, by dint 
of repetition, located these spots, let him try to fix one single 
locality by all the iteration of which he is capable, and see how 
many pilgrims will kneel and venerate it. 

Nor do Catholics cling slavishly to traditional sites. Thus 
Heiss follows Maldonatus in conceding that some spur of 
Hermon is more probably the place of the Transfiguration 
than Tabor, and a learned priest in Rome assured me that 
recent discoveries place the crucifixion of St. Peter on the spot 
where his Basilica stands, though this makes the good monks 
of Pietro in Montorio hold up their hands in horror. 

There is no spot on earth that we are bound in faith to 
esteem infallibly authentic. These are facts to be verified by 
the ordinary methods of investigation. In the absence of men- 
tion in the Holy or other scriptures, tradition will doubtless be 
the surest guide, and being in possession the burden of proof 
will lie with him who differs from it. But the pilgrim will 
ordinarily go in the spirit of devotion and not of criticism. 
Unless he have years of time to devote to the work, to try to 
authenticate localities would be presumptuous. He must be 



17 

content to take them as the centuries before him have taken 
them, and he will not be staggered if in the light of future dis- 
coveries one or other of the spots should be proved erroneous. 
It is an affair of the heart, not of the brain. 

V. Many new thoughts will fill the mind of the pilgrim from 
the West. 1. That he is in a land without progress ; that he 
is back among the Patriarchs ; among the flocks and herds with 
Jacob ; with Ruth in the fields of Boaz ; with Saul among the 
asses ; that the two women are still grinding at the mill ; that 
the oxen are still treading out the corn and the vintner still 
trampling the wine-press as of yore. 

2. That for the first time he is face to face with a nation not 
Christian, but Mohammedan. For however much Christians 
may unfortunately differ in many points, we still, thank God, 
possess the broad standing-ground in common — the belief that 
Christ is God and the Redeemer of the world. The Catholic 
feels that his Protestant brother is nearer to him than he before 
realized. But he will observe that the Mohammedan is a man 
of prayer. Prayer is indeed a characteristic of the Eastern 
mind ; it is not relegated to the church or the chamber, as 
with us, but is a part of the public, out-of-door life of Oriental 
peoples. There is a merchant sitting cross-legged in his booth ; 
he is praying his beads. There is a pedestrian on the highway ; 
he spreads his mat, and, with face toward Mecca, performs his 
orisons. There is a voyageur on the deck of the Mediterranean 
boat that steams out of Smyrna, smelling of figs ; he makes 



18 

his many prostrations undisturbed by the multitude around 
him. And of that multitude, every Oriental, be he Turk or Bud- 
dhist/ Armenian or Greek, looks on with reverence. The average 
Anglo-Saxon, I blush to say it, will ridicule or scorn. Have 
we gained, even though we still believe in God, that prayer to 
Him is something to be hidden, or to be ashamed of? 

The Oriental mind, too, seems lacking in fun. Does laugh- 
ter grow with civilization ? The Arab does not understand a 
joke, as least such jokes as we make. One of our party com- 
plained of the oranges : '* God made them, who made the 
world," said the waiter, with the utmost seriousness and 
dignity. 

Nearing the Dead Sea, I asked the guide if fishes lived in it. 
On his assuring me that it was too salt, I said that I thought 
the salt fish of commerce might grow there. Instead of taking 
it as a joke, he answered : " Father, you are exceeding the bounds 
of propriety !" 

3. He will be struck by the fact, also, that so far as regards 
the majority of believers in Christ, he is in the midst of a 
Christianity which is neither Catholic nor Protestant. So 
accustomed are we to divide Christians into these two classes, 
that it comes like a revelation, thot there is a powerful Church 
numbering eighty millions who are neither. Protestants they 
are not, for they have the Mass, the sacraments and almost the 
faith of Catholics, and the Protestant rule of faith — private 
interpretation of the Bible — is unknown to them. 



19 

But neither are they CathoHcs, for they reject the authority 
of the Pope, that centripetal force that keeps the Church 
together. It is the Greek Church. 

Not without reason has another collection been added to the 
already numerous appeals to our charity — that for the Holy 
Land — for the Greeks, especially the Russians, are most 
aggressive, and in Palestine every privilege is obtained by 
money.^ 

There are hol}^ places already where we dare not say Mass. 
Such are the Cenacle on Mount Zion, the Tomb of the Virgin 
near Gethsemane, the spot of our Saviour's birth at Bethlehem. 

These are held exclusively, the first by the Turks, the 
two latter by the Greeks, who eagerly occupy any ground 
lost by us. 

There is much religious activity among them, but their 
whole Church is permeated to the core by Simony. Ecclesias- 
tical offices are sold for money ; for money the Holy Eucharist 
is given without confession, and even the poor woman who pre- 
sents herself for the priest's blessing, is asked whether she 
wants one for a dime or one for a dollar ! This w^as related by 
the Archbishop of Athens, and contrasting the attitude of 
Greeks and Hebrews to the Catholic Church, he said, " The 
Jews will be converted to the truth a few minutes before the 
last Judgment ; the Greeks, a few minutes after it." 

Nor could a more appropriate time be ordered for this col- 
lection than Holy Week, when our heart is in Jerusalem — 



20 

where our treasure is — under the oHve trees, in the Pretorium, 
on the Via Dolorosa, on Calvary, in the Tomb or in the Garden 
risen. 

4. That the Holy Scriptures can only be fully understood if 
read in the land that produced them. 

How much of the imagery of the Bible is derived, for 
instance, from the Flora of Palestine ! As we view these ter- 
raced hillsides, with their grapevines, these stone-surrounded 
olives, and these fig-trees with their large, dark foliage, how we 
appreciate the beauty and truthfulness of that first apologue 
spoken by Joatham from the top of blessed Gerizim to the 
people of Sichem. Judges ix, 12. 

The trees desire a king, but the fig, the olive and the vine 
decline the honor. " Can I leave my sweetness and delicious 
fruit?" "Can I leave my fatness ? " '-'Can I leave my wine 
that cheers gods and men," to be promoted among the other 
trees? What could be more happily expressed? The fatness, 
the sweetness, the cheering juice ! 

Then we will see at the Jordan the mustard growing larger 
than all the herbs, yea, becoming a tree fifteen feet in height; 
we will see the Fsoralia, much resembling our red clover, and 
which the Arabs told me, in their language, was styled *•' the 
flower of the grass," the identical metaphor used by St. 
James to express the transitoriness of man's life. All flowers 
are short-lived, but this being a fodder plant, and therefore cut 
and " cast into the oven," is particularly so. We will see in 



21 

the Garden of Gethsemane the little Adonis, fabled by heathen 
mythology to have sprung from the blood, boar-spilled, of the 
loved of Venus. Can there not be a Christian mythology, as 
well as a Pagan one, and may these flowers not remind us, at 
least, without superstition, of the night when " His sweat 
became as drops of blood " ? 

As we pass the hut of the Arab, we smell the lentil pottage, 
and half condone Esau's fault. In the grain fields we see the 
farmer gathering the tares out of the wheat. They call it 
Zawan, and say it causes dizziness, if eaten. 

In the clefts of our rocky path, we will gather the rose of 
Sharon, and undisturbed by the botanical fact that it is not a 
rose, but a Cistus, will delight to call it by its time-honored 
name. 

But how the beloved of the Canticle is seen in the flowers 
of this land ! How her lips glow in the closed bell of the Pome- 
granate flower! How she towers up in stateliest majesty in the 
palm tree. How her beauty is seen in the anemones and the 
lilies — red and white — how her sweetness is felt in the spiken- 
ard and the blossom of the grape, and her twining arms in the 
trailing vines of En-gedi ! 

What is here said of the P'lora, is true likewise of the cus- 
toms of the people, and their habits of thought, is true of the 
seasons and of the characteristics of mountain or plain. They 
all illustrate the Scripture narrative, and the true guide-book 
to carry is the Bible. 



22 

VI. Folk tradition says that the last Judgment will be held 
in the valley of Jehosophat. It would only be in keeping with 
the law of nature whereby everything comes back in an end- 
less round to where it had its origin. The Greeks claim that 
the Umbilicus Terrce is in their chapel, within the Church of 
the Holy Sepulchre ; and from Palestine, as from a centre, has 
radiated the world, its people, its history, its faith and its light. 
It is not a beautiful country ; but as we view its stony hills and 
its treeless plains, its deep-cut gorges, and its waterless valleys, 
we think of the grey hairs — now few — of our Mother's brow, 
of furrows that solicitude for us has worn in her cheeks — and 
we love this land for what it has been. 




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23 



25 



©HE Moslem guards the Saviour's gracious tomb ; 
The Latin purchases the right to kiss — 
III transports higher than a lover's bliss — 
Prostrate, that hill from out whose rocky womb 
True Life arose ; and every dusky race, 
Greek, Copt, Armenian, Negro, fights for room 
To hang a lamp, or kneel in holiest place. 
The Jew would come, but dare not, to deface : 
Thus do the world's religions strive in blood 
This Sepulchre to hold, and striving prove — 
None struggling long for an uncertain good — 
The authenticity of all we love. 
Sceptic and scoffer learn from what ye see : 
Then kneel ; these wranglings are our warranty. 

Jerusalem, April 7. 



26 



HAT doest thou in yon ship's darkling hold, 
Truant from duty, when Assyria's fate 
Hangs on th}^ penance-message still untold, 
Which two score mornings now will bring too late ? 
Say not I am a child — divine mandate 
Can years confer. Say with the Harper old : 
Ah ! whither from Thy spirit can I fare, 
Where hide me from Thy face ? I said the night 
Would cover me ; it scorched my sins with light. 
Shall I ascend to Heaven ? Thou art there : 
Or shall I make my bed in Hell ? Thy eye 
Views the abyss. Or to seas' utmost bourne 
Taking the wings of morning can I fly ? 
Even there Thy hand can lead. Thy right hand 
make me turn. 



Jaffa, April 6. 



27 



<Bf::(g;ub6. 

THE HOLY CITY. 

JpLESSED the peacemakers" : then happy thou, 
Jerusalem ! thou Queen, with hps that bless ; 
Built on the hill that even those not seeking 
May find, and share thy peace of holiness. 
Sainting our latter day, how burst thy buds 
From hoary olive stem this April weather, 
Thou great King's City, built compact together, 
Rock founded high above the sands and floods. 
Altar of sacrifice eterne ! with bloods 
The holiest in history sanctified ; 
From Zachary's, that to venging Heaven cried. 
To Jesus' wounds, louder for pardon speaking : 
By Jew, by Moslem and by Christian loved ; 
Forever, allwhere and to all — El-Kuds. 

Jerusalem, April 7 . 



28 

IN THE TEMPLE AREA, JERUSALEM. 

J5hECHINAH'S awe and tabernacle's glory 
And Temples' stones and sacrificial pyre 
That made this spot adored in Bible story, 
Did they in ignominious end expire ? 
Say rather that the lower by the higher 
Light was eclipsed, as stars by sunlight's beam ; 
Or, still more truly, as that noontide fire 
Continues, not destroys, the morning gleam. 
The Real Presence in our churches resting 
For incompleteness of the past atones ; 
Building the Temple and the Levite vesting, 
Turning to altar yonder quarried stones. 
The prophecy has found fulfillment clear ; 
The House of God, in three days built, is here ! 

April 8. 



29 



HOUSE OF MARY AND MARTHA. 

NCE flowers bloomed around this threshold lowly, 
Trodden so oft by Him whose ways were peace ; 
Those feet most beautiful on mountain holy 
Making all growth of noxious herbage cease, 
Made, too, of rarest blossoms sweet increase : 
Now poison weeds usurp the favored room ; 
Fragrance gives place to stench ; brightness to gloom ; 
The wheat is dead, the cockle triumphs solely. 
So virtues spring where'er His feet are pressed ; 
So vices thrive where Jesus' steps ne'er come ; 
John glows to love upon the Saviour's breast. 
But fades all truth where wisdom's voice is dumb. 
That careless life is but of weeds possessed 
By sacrifice and sacrament unblessed. 

April 14. 



30 

(ttlaBB (Xt iU Zomi. 
I. 

2£S warrior keeps the vigil of his fight 
Before the altar where his armour lies, 
That, girded on him, Avith deep mysteries, 
Sends him afield a consecrated Knight — 
So in this domed Basilic's mystic light. 
Where countless lamps their checkered radiance 

throwing 
Brighten smooth shaft or deep recess's gloom, 
I kneeling Avatch for faintest streak of white 
O'er pagan Moab's distant mountains showing. 
To offer sacrifice upon the Tomb. 
Bind, soldier, bind in strong Jehovah's power 
The sword upon thy thigh, that thou may est be. 
Clothed in the signal honor of this hour, 
A knight for God, and for Humanity ! 

The Sepulchre, April 8. 



31 



(ttXasB at f^e ComB. 



n. 



XN my hand's sepulchre the Body lies : 
And very early in this morning dim, 
Three Maries crowd aromid my sacrifice ; 
With eager pilgrim feet, asking for Him. 
They come, alert, the spikenard cruet bearing — 
They come with sanctity's sweet odour rare ; 
The darkened myrrh, with opal-balsam sharing 
The privilege to touch that Body fair — 
Sorrow and love, for Him the meet preparing — 
Rapture and grief — both sanctified by pain — 
Heart bleedings 'neath a rod wounding yet sparing, 
Repentance's bitter drop, but sweeter gain. 
Triumphant conqueror of the grave, arise ! 
And in these hearts complete Thy victories. 

Jerusalem, April 9. 



32 



In Bethany unlearn the lesson cruel 
Taught by a sneering world with Hagar tongue, 
That to God's scheme, an old maid is a wrong : 
That woman has a mission only dual, 
Either for marriage bond, or cloister vow. 
To higher wisdom rise, and ponder, how 
To Salem's gates, by pathway plain or faint 
We cross Jehosophat's or Hinnom's vale : 
That in God's house there many mansions are ; 
And many duties in his vineyard's pale ; 
And many niches to be filled by saint 
That differs each from each, as star from star. 
Such niches old maids fill, in Martha's mood. 
With vow is spirit kept, a secular sisterhood. 

Bethany, April 14. ■ 



33 



4)ngin of ^int. 



HEBEEW FABLE. 



HEN Noah, surfeited with water, planted 

The grape vine on Armenian Ararat, 

With nose prophetic Satan smelled the vat 

To be, and his part in the business wanted. 

'^ Agreed," said Noah, ''water you the vine." 

'Twas hard, for stream was none ; but nothing daunted. 

He kills a lamb, a lion caught in toil. 

And dirty hog, of all dumb beasts most dumb. 

With blood of these moistening the thirsty soil. 

Emblems these three of the effect of wine : 

Who drink not, innocent as lambs remaining ; 

Who drink in measure, lions brave become, 

Who drink to fullness, like the wallowing swine 

Grovel in filth, forever stained and staining. 



84 



A LEGEND OF HOLY CROSS MONASTERY. 

^IN laden Lot, if grows this stripling tree 

Thy soul shall live, from wrong and crime forgiven : 

But if it die, then are the gates of Heaven, 

Those gates of joy, closed against thine and thee. 

Serve it from Jordan's wave." And instantly 

(For true repentance shirks not penance sore) 

He measures with unsandaled foot the seven 

Long leagues of rock that lie between that shore. 

'' Oh ! give us of your water, or we die ! " 

The blear-eyed lepers hissed from roadside bed : 

And so in Charity the cruse ran dry. 

'' Love is a shower," the returning angel said, 

'' Better than Hermon's dew : Mourn not thy loss ; 

Thy plant shall live." That tree became the Cross ! 

Ain Karin, April 11. 



u 



85 



^xbUxb of ?ion. 

FOUNDED BY AXiPHONSE EATISBON. 

EEP not for me, but for your children's fate ; " 
The Daughters of Jerusalem heard amazed, 
Nor understood, until, that city razed. 
Each mother stood, Hke Niobe, desolate. 
Mourning her young that in the market sate : 
Mourning her child with head dashed on the stone 
Mourning the one, that, more unfortunate, 
Raised at deserted cross-roads piteous moan. 
To-day her daughters hear the Saviour's word ; 
And from those streets and deserts gather in. 
To House by convert Ratisbon conferred, 
Those little ones scattered by Judah's sin. 
The tear of grief to useful labor turns : 
By dark-robed sister's knee, the dark child learns. 



Jerusalem, April 10. 



36 



H, Martha, will Rabboni come to-night ? 

With hope deferred my soul is sick and dying ; 

My foolish eyes and thoughts are ever flying 

Along yon dusty way so grimly white : 

A train of camels, clear-drawn in the light 

That sinks behind the Temple's golden gate. 

Or Bedouin fierce, or traveler belate — 

Nothing but these rewards my anxious sight. 

Sister ! 1 feel he comes — is here — but lo ! 

Not from Jerusalem, but from Jericho. 

Blest they who hear the footsteps of our Lord ; 

Their fall 'mid louder, vulgarer sounds discerning 

Who in misfortune's pang, or sorrow's burning 

See only the approach of One adored. 



37 



N Mount Moriah grew the thorny tree, 
Holding the ram that bled for A braham's son : 
And when the Lamb of God the ransom won 
That meanest slave and sinner son might be, 
The Spina Christi compassed that pale brow, 
And crowned him till the sacrifice was done ; 
Until the pitying Father sheathed his knife. 
And in the Son's death, came the son to life. 
Still grow these thorns on Salem's stony hills ; 
Still Z ion's Daughters plait them to a crown. 
Which even the hardest heart with feeling thrills 
Compelling it Love's sovereignty to own. 
Hold, Christian, hold thy breast against this thorn. 
And like the nightingale, in sweetest music mourn. 

Calvary, April 10. 



38 



JL HAVE no son to keep my memory green ; 
Therefore I set this piUar here of stone, 
In the King's dale." This monument is seen 
By Kidron's bed,mid graves,hke wrecked ships, strown 
On Olivet's ascent : This one alone 
Unreverenced, tho' royal bones it cover 
With seeming splendor from tall column shed. 
Vain-haired rebellion, thy short day is over. 
No worship thine of discalced foot, or head 
Earth-bowed. In Avrath at thy unfilial sin 
No righteous Jew esteems thee hallowed, 
But passing spits, and throws a stone therein. 
In our own youth an Absolom I see, 
And cast a stone, America, for thee. 

Valley of Jehosophat, April 14. 



39 



ZH Origin of t^e (Roee. 

A LEGEND OF BETHLEHEM. 

yONDEMNED to death of fire by slanderous tongue 
A new Susanna stands in modest grace, 
While sunset ray from heights of Bether flung 
Transfigures with its glow the upturned face 
While thus she prays : " O Spouse of Chastity, 
As I am clean, and vowed to Thee alone, 
Look on Thy Bride in this extremity, 
And to Thy praise, my innocence make known." 
Her look of purity pure souls may read : 
For baser intellects the marvel : lo I 
The blazing fagots turn to roses red 
Those still unburn ed to flowers white as snow. 
The first that bloomed on Judah's uplands fair 
Whose sisters yet perfume the evening air. 

April 11. 



40 



©HE moaning sea against a rocky shore : 
Such art thou, Israel, in thy awful woe, 
With palm and forehead pressed forevermore 
Upon those blocks that raised thy temple's glory 
Or swaying palsied grey hairs to and fro, 
And giving to the winds thy anguished story : 
'' Oh for our Palace walls in desolation — 
Temple and bucklered tower now overthrown ; 
Oh for the perished glories of our nation, 
Oh for our priesthood fat and lazy grown. 
Oh for our King and Pontiffs gone astray. 
We sit alone and weep." Oh restless sea ! 
Return, return, Jerusalem, and stay 
The sobbing of thy mournful litany. 

Jerusalem, April 12. 



> > 
S F 





mM^^ 




1 4** 



41 



J^ouae of (ttXarg anb (tttdrt^d. 

jliOT by confusion of the natures twain 
The mystery of Immanuel we confess ; 
Thought perfect God still perfect man no less, 
To whom His toil brings weary heart and brain. 
How oft that Man-God sinking 'neath the pain 
Of cold indifference from men, would turn — 
Unfearing His divining to stain — 
Here in this '' House of Dates," to gentler cheer, 
Where fire and love, both vestal-tended, burn ; 
One listens and one serves, but both, how dear ! 
And to our listening soul this human feeling 
Unites us to Him by a fonder tie ; 
The human nature's verity revealing. 
Our God himself seeks woman's sympathy. 

Bethany, April 13. 



42 



(Ku66et (Ra^if. 

JUeW voices weeping now in Ramah sound ; 

Not w^oman's piercing wail, but strong heartbreaking 
For Rachel lost, although her child is found. 
And after years the memory awakening- 
Jacob to filial Joseph will renew 
The history of this saddest burial ground. 
''And when I came from Padan- Aram's thrall 
Rachel the best-beloved — Rachel the Ewe — 
Her Benjamin unto Benoni making — 
Died from me, under Bethlehem's rude wall. 
The fourteen years of toil in Laban's fields 
Were short compared with this griefs endless day : 
Nor rest to her sainted Machpelah yields : 
I left her 'mong the stones, in Ephrath's way." 

Bethlehem, April 12. 



43 



©HE sufferings of the present pilgrim time, 
The Apostle says, in nowise can compare 
With glory that shall be in Heaven's clime ; 
Smallest of trifles will appear the stair 
By which we clomb, when, earthly vapors rising, 
The Orient an endless day shall bring : 
So in our bosoms justest, truest prizing, 
Small seem the perils of our journeying. 
To visit this the saddest of all lands 
O'er which the Jew as well as Christian grieves; 
But still unfalsified the Scripture stands, 
For the large sorrow larger joy retrieves ; 
From Calvary the empty Tomb you see. 
And Olivet o'er towers Gethsemane. 

Jerusalem, April 22. 



44 



Contemyfation (Xni> &a6or. 



"MARY'S PART SHALL NOT BE TAKEN AWAY. 



H, Martha, of the kindly ministration; 

The lowly pallet strewed, the meal prepared, 

Eead not dejected in yon declaration, 

Censm^e from lips that have thy serving shared. 

Whose deeper meaning speaks, if understood, 

No blame to thee, but near beatitude. 

'' Thy part, Oh Martha ! shall be taken aAvay ; 

From hands the ache, from eyes the scalding brine ; 

The upturned face, the rest, these are to stay ; 

And Mary's part will soon be also thine." 

But through this life must go the sisters twain : 

While heedless souls from innocency stray, 

While dusty feet and hungry mouths remain, 

Still must our Martha work, still must our Mar}^ pray. 



45 



(geronica ^griacd. 

® HE pious woman who with Jesus grieving 
The napkin to His blood-stained forehead gave 
The Veron Icon and her name receiving 
Slumbers long years in unremembered grave. 
But still an azure eye with glance that cheers 
Looks up, Spring after Spring. A floweret weaving- 
Sweet woof, where warp is rocky wilderness, — 
Soft scarf to dry the sudden, homesick tears 
Of wanderer far from feminine relieving. 
Oh flower ! hearted like woman toward distress, 
Gladdening this desert land where lives no rose. 
Along my dusty path from Eriha," 
How well your office does your name disclose ; 
The Syrian Speedwell, or Veronica. 

Inn of the Good Samaritan, April 16. 



46 



(Bef^Bemane. €f}C Oif (ptCBB. 

HE Prince of Peace must wear the olive wreath ; 
The Healer squeeze the oil-press to the end ; 
In sweat the gardener must his vineyard tend, 
And in his hastened labor quicklier breathe. 
Lo ! here, these gnarled and twisted trunks beneath 
One treads the vat alone. Palm branches failing, 
Olives rise up and sympathy extend. 
These trees are crown and press ; their leafage paling 
Before that mortal agony, inclose 
In quivering halo that bowed head, and veiling- 
Still chronicle those unrecorded woes. 
He wears the thorn, tlie olive and tlie palm! 
Such is the varied foliage of the Cross ; 
His service brings the sting, brings, too, the balm. 
And crowns the end with Nike Apteros.'^ 



47 



C^e (JJXabonna of t^e ^hcp.' 

DORMIO, SED VIGLLAT COK MEUM. 

XjE sleeps ! yes, but his heart keeps vigil still ; 
That baby heart, beating so peacefully, 
But watches for the moment to fulfill 
Redemption that shall universes free. 
Watches for thorns and Cross that are to be, 
Watches for Calvary, and that saddest rest 
The last He takes upon His mother's knee 
Before the Sepulchre receives its guest. 
Again He sleeps on Galilean wave, 
Again He comforts those of little faith, 
Again His voice rebukes the yawning death. 
And with the body also spirit saves. 
Affrights thee rocky shore or raging sea ? 
(Courage, dear soul, He sleeps, but watches thee, 



48 



(ttlounf (ttloria^. 

X STAND above Araunah's threshing floor : 
Far down the misty past I see him there — 
The wind from mid-earth ocean in his hair — 
And from uplifted apron see him pour 
The chafF-mixed grain into the judging air. 
It severs worth from waste, its blasts condemn 
The useless husks to Sodom's salted fire ; 
The heavy wheat descends toward Bethlehem. 
A sterner winnow than this thyme-sweet air 
The Faith that later sate, Jerusalem ! 
Upon thy hill ; a sterner Judge who found 
Thee only worthy of the garner's care : 
When Amnion, and Philistia, Moab, Gath — 
All were the straw before His nostril's wrath. 

April 13. 



49 



%(XcoB (Returneb from ^jrta. 



A LEGEND. 



® HY tithe of gold has graced the altar's horn, 
Thy tithe of cattle on that altar bled ; 
The tithe of wine and oil, of wheat and corn, 
Of cumin, too, has rigorously been paid. 
But wherefore has thy just right hand been stayed ? 
Hast thou forgot the children to thee born. 
The more than tenfold blessings of the womb ? 
Is vow fulfilled thus, or command obeyed, 
To give the fruit of field, or work of loom, 

To tithe the earth— ourselves being denied 

To keep the grain, and give the husk outworn ? 
Think'st thou Jehovah will be satisfied ? " 
The angel vanished ; Israel adored 
And consecrated Levi to the Lord. 

Bethel, April 22. 



50 



December's noon is warm by Jacob's Well : 
But hotter far the deathly feud of ages 
That, fed by slander and the lies of Hell, 
Between Samaria and Judah rages. 
Lo ! Now a Jew with Sychar's woman meeting 
Here on this curb, with look ineffable 
Accosts her with most unexpected greeting . 
With favor asked,— that shows more love than gift, 
Even the costliest, can ever tell. 
'' Why ask for water, but that I may lift 
Your soul to holier thirst, slaking its pain 
In stream that flows perennial from above ; 
Which tasted once need not be drawn again." 
And Judah's Lion conquers thus by love. 

Jacob's Well, April 23. 



51 



(Bpit^afatntum, 



MAECH 25, A. D. 1. 



©HE westering sun on CarmeFs forehead lies ! 
And wooded slope and craggy promontory, 
Tho' seen, are mingled in one radiant glory. 
Majestic bridal of the earth and skies ! 
Sing spirit guardians of high mysteries 
The nuptials by prophetic lips declared. 
In bridal chamber from eterne prepared, 
Adorned in purest white and richest dyes. 
Sing Bridegroom coming from supremest Heaven, 
Sing poor and low one raised to high embrace ; 
Sing the great joy to every mortal given 
In such ennobling of our human race. 
Religion's first, sublimest mystery. 
Humanity espoused by Deity ! 

Nazareth, April 'M. 



52 



^ea of (Bafifee. 

JtiO ! in the hollow of an emerald vase, 

With crimped and fluted rim, a sapphire lies ! 

And seeming to our fond, enchanted gaze 

A piece of tearless Syria's bluest skies 

Slid down this grassy slope. A Peri's prize 

To carry back to Heaven. But say, what thrill 

Comes o'er us here? Why dim the merriest eyes 

With tender thoughts that Bethlehem did not raise 

Nor Nazareth nor Jerusalem fulfill ? 

The glare of lamps supplants the stable's gloom ; 

Proud church ill compensates with proudest lays 

The quiet of the Home, the silence of the Tomb — 

But here no change — W^hat His eye saw, we see. 

The sweetest picture is blue Galilee. 

Above Tiberias, April 27 . 



53 



ON THE SHORE OF GALILEE. 

jSoMETIME in life to every human heart 

Imperative these words come ; haply thrilling 

Our careless apathy with awful start 

Like Saul of Tarsus : Or, it may be, filling 

To perfectness, what was before but part, 

So silently, we deem it our own willing. 

So speaks the sun to yonder glittering snow 

On Hermon piled. And drop by drop distilling 

It leaves its skyey throne and downward speeds 

Reaching unconsciously this bluest wave, 

Through darksome wadies, or through flower gemmed 

meads, 
It forms for feet of Jesus sapphire pave. 
Refuse not, soul, to come to lower ground 
If there the calling Fisherman is found ! 



Bethsaida, April 28. 



64 



(^ feegenb of Cgre. 

JMLLONG this dimpled beach walked Hercules, 
With hand of maid best-loved within his own ; 
His dog, who gamboled on before them, sees 
A spiny shell upon the margin thrown 
And bit it hard ; the purple gushing shown 
So gorgeous, cried the girl, in extacies : 
^' Such dress obtain, or never call me bride ! " 
He loved : And love invents the Tyrian's pride. 
Alas ! Jerusalem, a hei*o stood — 
A stronger —at thy gate and asked thy hand ; 
He w^ooed thee in the vesture of His blood. 
Than Tyrian Murex thousand-fold more grand. 
Ah blind and foolish maid ! Ah spouse untrue ! 
Still to reject a Lover in such hue. 

Tyre, May 3. 



55 



NOTES. 

1. As this goes to press, Very Rev. Chas. A. Vissani, Commis- 
sary of the Holy Land, informs me that the Franciscan Guard- 
ians of Palestine have obtained possession of two Holy places in 
Siloe, since the Pilgrimage. 

2. Eriha. The modern Arabic name for Jericho. 

3. Nike Apteros. The Athenians built a temple to the Victory 
Without Wings, hoping that that diety would never fly from them. 

4. Madonna of the Sleep. A painting in the possession of 
the author, by Chas. P. Durward. 

5. The Lion's Proselyte. The Jews called the Samaritans 
"Proselytes of the lion," in derision, alleging that they were 
converted to the worship of the true God only by the ravages of 
the beasts that came up from the Jordan valley, and that ceased 
on their calling on Jehovah. 



